ZK Security Research
Notes on proving-system bugs, circuit disclosures, and audit reports. A note appears here only after it clears the editorial quality gate: long enough to be a real article, on topic, and free of generator scaffolding. The original guides live on Learn. Produced by the ZK Security research pipeline. Published only after the automated quality gate.
2026-10-14
This monthArguzz: Fuzzing zkVMs with Product Programs and a Simulated Malicious Prover
"Arguzz: Testing zkVMs for Soundness and Completeness Bugs" is by Christoph Hochrainer (TU Wien), Valentin Wüstholz
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This monthAztec alpha v5 proving system vulnerability
On 7 August 2026 Aztec published a disclosure stating that core contributors had identified a critical vulnerability in
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This monthFiat–Shamir done wrong: an auditor's map of transcript and challenge-derivation bugs
The Fiat–Shamir transformation replaces a verifier's random challenges with hashes of the transcript so far. Every value the prover can influence must be hashed in before any challenge that depends on…
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This monthHalo2 query collision multiopen soundness bug
On 2025-07-09 zkSecurity published a write-up by Suneal Gong of a soundness bug in Halo2 that it named the "query collision bug" ([zkSecurity](https://blog.zksecurity.xyz/posts/halo2-query-collision/)…
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This monthFormal Verification of ZK Circuits in ACL2: Kestrel's R1CS and PFCS Approach
"Formal Verification of Zero-Knowledge Circuits" by Alessandro Coglio, Eric McCarthy and Eric W. Smith was posted to arXiv
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This monthOpenvm pairing cve 2026 46669 missing subfield check
On 2026-05-15 OpenVM published advisory [GHSA-76mq-v757-53gr](https://github.com/openvm-org/openvm/security/advisories/GHSA-76mq-v757-53gr) (CVE-2026-46669), rated critical. It covers , the Rust guest…
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This monthUnder-constrained circuits: the most common bug class in ZK circuits
A zero-knowledge circuit is two programs that must agree: the witness generator that computes values, and the constraint system the verifier actually checks. An under-constrained circuit is one where…
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This monthZcash Orchard soundness bug: a missing copy constraint in halo2_gadgets variable-base scalar multipl…
On May 29, 2026, Taylor Hornby, an independent researcher auditing the Orchard protocol on behalf of Shielded Labs, found a soundness flaw in the Orchard Action circuit and disclosed it to ZODL engine…
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This monthZero knowledge vulnerability disclosure trail of bits
On 21 May 2020 Ben Perez of Trail of Bits published a proposal to change how software vulnerabilities are disclosed. A researcher would hand a vendor or bug-bounty program a zero-knowledge proof that…
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This monthZkvm security 2026 audits bug classes disclosures
This article inventories what six zkVM projects have published about security, as of 14 October 2026. It draws on three kinds of source:
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This monthFiat-Shamir Transcript Bugs: Why Proof Systems Must Hash Everything the Prover Sends
Most zero-knowledge proofs deployed in blockchains are non-interactive. The prover publishes a single proof, and anyone can check it without a back-and-forth conversation with a verifier. The Fiat-Sha…
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This monthZcash Orchard Soundness Bug: How an Unbound Base Point Slipped Past Audits
The soundness vulnerability in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool, found and patched in the first days of June 2026, is one of the most instructive zero-knowledge security incidents of the year. It sat in…
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